[Congressional Bills 103th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 54 Introduced in House (IH)]

103d CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. RES. 54

   To amend the Rules of the House of Representatives to provide for 
    reform of the House of Representatives, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            January 27, 1993

 Mr. Hefley (for himself, Mr. Inglis, Mr. Shays, Mr. Schiff, Mr. Goss, 
Mr. McHugh, Mr. Zeliff, Mr. Baker of Louisiana, Mr. Porter, Mr. Walsh, 
 Mr. Stump, Mr. Hancock, Mr. Doolittle, and Mr. Rohrabacher) submitted 
 the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Rules

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
   To amend the Rules of the House of Representatives to provide for 
    reform of the House of Representatives, and for other purposes.

    Resolved,

SECTION 1. TASK FORCE TO REDUCE THE NUMBER OF COMMITTEES IN THE HOUSE 
              OF REPRESENTATIVES.

    Not later than 10 days after the date on which this resolution is 
agreed to, the Speaker shall appoint a task force for the purpose of 
restructuring the committee system in order to reduce the number of 
standing committees to not more than 15 and to establish their 
jurisdictions. The task force shall--
            (1) be composed of 10 Members of the House, of whom 5 
        Members shall be appointed upon the recommendation of the 
        majority leader and 5 Members shall be appointed upon 
        recommendation of the minority leader; and
            (2) report its recommendations to the House not later than 
        the end of the One Hundred Third Congress.

SEC. 2. SUBCOMMITTEE LIMITS.

    Clause 6(d) of rule X of the Rules of the House of Representatives 
is amended to read as follows:
    ``(d)(1) Each standing committee of the House (except the Committee 
on the Budget which shall have no subcommittees and the Committee on 
Rules which shall have 2 subcommittees) shall establish not more than 4 
subcommittees, except the Committee on Appropriations (which may have 
the same number of subcommittees that it had in the One Hundred Second 
Congress).
    ``(2) For the purposes of this paragraph, the term `subcommittee' 
includes any panel, task force, special subcommittee, or any subunit of 
a standing committee, or any select committee which is established for 
a period of longer than 6 months in any Congress.''.

SEC. 3. COMMITTEE STAFFING.

    Clause 5 of rule XI of the Rules of the House of Representatives is 
amended by redesignating paragraphs (a) through (f) as paragraphs (b) 
through (g), respectively, and by inserting at the beginning the 
following new paragraph:
    ``(a)(1) It shall not be in order to consider any primary expense 
resolution until the Committee on House Administration has reported, 
and the House has adopted, a resolution establishing an overall ceiling 
for House committee staff personnel for that year, and any such 
resolution shall be privileged.
    ``(2) In developing any primary expense resolution, the Committee 
on House Administration shall specify in the resolution the number of 
staff positions authorized by the resolution. The committee shall 
verify in the report accompanying any such primary expense resolution 
that the number of staff positions authorized by such resolution is in 
conformity with the overall ceiling on such positions established by 
the House.
    ``(3) In no event shall the total number of additional staff 
positions authorized by all such primary expense resolutions, taken 
together with the number of staff positions authorized by clause 6 of 
this rule (providing for professional and clerical staff), exceed the 
ceiling established by the House for that year.
    ``(4) In allocating staff positions pursuant to the overall ceiling 
established by the House, the committee shall take into account the 
past and anticipated legislative and oversight activities of each 
committee.
    ``(5) In any supplemental expense resolution, and in any amendment 
thereto, the committee shall specify the number of additional staff 
positions, if any, authorized by such resolution, and shall indicate in 
the report accompanying any such resolution whether the additional 
staff positions are in conformity with or exceed the overall ceiling 
established by the House.
    ``(6) It shall not be in order to consider any supplemental expense 
resolution, or any amendment thereto, authorizing additional staff 
positions in excess of the overall ceiling established by the House 
except by a vote of two-thirds of the Members voting, a quorum being 
present.
    ``(7) It shall not be in order to consider any primary or 
supplemental expense resolution for one or more committees unless the 
report on such resolution includes a statement verifying that each such 
committee has adopted and complied with a committee rule entitling the 
minority party on such committee, upon the request of a majority of 
such minority, to not less than one-third of the funds provided for 
committee staff pursuant to each primary or supplemental expense 
resolution.
    ``(8) For the purposes of the One Hundred Third Congress, the 
overall ceiling for committee staff in a resolution reported by the 
committee pursuant to subparagraph (1), or contained in any amendment 
thereto, shall not exceed 50 percent of the total committee staff 
personnel employed at the end of the One Hundred Second Congress.''.

SEC. 4. PROXY VOTING BAN.

    Clause 2(f) of rule XI of the Rules of the House of Representatives 
is amended to read as follows:
    ``(f) No vote by any member of any committee or subcommittee with 
respect to any measure or matter may be cast by proxy.''.

SEC. 5. COMMITTEE RATIOS.

    (a) Clause 6(a) of rule X of the Rules of the House of 
Representatives is amended by adding at the end the following new 
subparagraph:
    ``(3) The membership of each committee (and each subcommittee, task 
force, or other subunit thereof) shall reflect the ratio of majority to 
minority party Members of the House at the beginning of the Congress. 
This subparagraph shall not apply to the Committee on Standards of 
Official Conduct or the Committee on House Administration. For the 
purposes of this clause, the Resident Commissioner from Puerto Rico and 
the Delegates to the House shall not be counted in determining the 
party ratio of the House.''.
    (b) Clause 6(f) of rule X of the Rules of the House of 
Representatives is amended by inserting after the second sentence the 
following: ``The membership of each such select committee (and of any 
subcommittee, task force, or subunit thereof), and of each such 
conference committee, shall reflect the ratio of the majority to 
minority party Members of the House at the time of its appointment.''.
    (c) Effective at the beginning of the One Hundred Third Congress, 
except as provided by clause 6(a)(3) of rule X, the ratio of majority 
party to minority party staff positions, consultants, details, and 
funding for each committee of the House of Representatives shall be the 
ratio of majority party to minority party Members of the House of 
Representatives.

SEC. 6. ELIMINATION OF JOINT REFERRALS OF LEGISLATION.

    Clause 5(c) of rule X of the Rules of the House of Representatives 
is amended to read as follows:
    ``(c) In carrying out paragraphs (a) and (b) with respect to any 
matter, the Speaker shall initially refer the matter to one committee 
which he shall designate as the committee of principal jurisdiction.''.

SEC. 7. LIMITATION ON LENGTH OF SERVICE ON ANY COMMITTEE.

    Clause 6 of rule X of the Rules of the House of Representatives is 
amended by inserting at the end the following:
    ``(j)(1) Notwithstanding any other provision of these rules, no 
Member shall serve as a member of any committee for more than 8 years 
or as chairman of any committee for more than 4 years.
    ``(2) For purposes of paragraph (1)--
            ``(A) any service performed as a member or chairman of any 
        committee for less than a full session in any Congress shall be 
        disregarded; and
            ``(B) previous service on any committee before the One 
        Hundred Third Congress shall be disregarded.''.

SEC. 8. MAKING THE COMMITTEE ON HOUSE ADMINISTRATION BIPARTISAN.

    Clause 6(a) of rule X of the Rules of the House of Representatives 
(as amended by section 5) is amended by adding at the end the 
following:
    ``(4)(A) One-half of the members of the Committee on House 
Administration shall be from the majority party and one-half shall be 
from the minority party.
    ``(B) In the case of the Committee on House Administration, 
subpoenas may be authorized and issued as provided by clause 2(m) of 
rule XI, except that either the chairman or ranking minority party 
member of that committee may authorize and issue subpoenas under that 
clause.''.

SEC. 9. PERMITTING INSTRUCTIONS IN MOTIONS TO RECOMMIT.

    The second sentence in clause 4(b) of rule XI of the Rules of the 
House of Representatives is amended by striking ``nor'' and all that 
follows and inserting the following: ``nor shall it report any rule or 
order which would prevent the motion to recommit from being made as 
provided in clause 4 of rule XVI, including a motion with amendatory 
instructions (except in the case of a Senate measure for which the 
language of a House-passed measure has been substituted).''.

SEC. 10. TWO-THIRDS VOTE REQUIRED TO WAIVE POINTS OF ORDER.

    Clause 4 of rule XI of the Rules of the House of Representatives is 
amended by adding at the end the following new paragraph:
    ``(e) It shall not be in order to consider a resolution which 
waives any point of order, except by a vote of two-thirds of those 
Members voting.''.

SEC. 11. APPLICABILITY OF CERTAIN LAWS TO THE HOUSE.

    (a) It is the policy of the House that the laws of the United 
States set forth in subsection (b) should be amended to apply to the 
House of Representatives in the same or similar manner as such laws 
apply to the Executive Branch.
    (b) Not later than September 15, 1993, the standing committees of 
the House with subject matter jurisdiction over the following laws of 
the United States shall report to the House legislation to implement 
subsection (a):
            (1) The National Labor Relations Act.
            (2) The Occupational Safety Act and Health Act of 1970.
            (3) The Equal Pay Act of 1963.
            (4) The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967.
            (5) Section 552 of title 5, United States Code (popularly 
        known as the Freedom of Information Act).
            (6) Section 552a of title 5, United States Code (popularly 
        known as the Privacy Act of 1974).
            (7) Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (relating to 
        equal employment opportunity).
    (c) The Committee on Rules shall, not later than 10 legislative 
days after any such legislation has been reported, report a resolution 
providing for the consideration of such measure in the Committee of the 
Whole House on the State of the Union under an open amendment process.
    (d) If such legislation is not reported by all the committees named 
above by the date specified, the first bill introduced which implements 
the policy referred to in subsection (a) and which encompasses all the 
laws referred to in subsection (b) shall be considered as having been 
discharged from all the committees to which it was referred. It shall 
be in order on any day after September 30, 1993, for any Member of the 
House (after consultation with the Speaker as to the most appropriate 
time for consideration), as a matter of highest privilege, to move to 
resolve into the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union 
for its consideration, and the bill shall be subject to four hours of 
general debate to be equally divided and controlled by the majority and 
minority leaders, or their designees, followed by consideration of the 
measure for amendment under the five-minute rule.

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